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7th Grade Bridge Project

Seventh grade students became engineers for the annual “Bridge Project” at Harpeth Hall. This exciting and highly anticipated project asks students to explore their creativity and apply scientific principles. Middle School Science Teacher, Elsa Davids, shared an overview of the unit: The seventh grade bridge project is our first major foray into engineering. In our class, we like to say that we have been “hired” to build a bridge for the town of “Needabridge.” We conduct research about bridge history and bridge types, and we follow the engineering design process throughout the project. Additionally, students must consider the town’s needs and maintain a budget as they design their initial bridge in a 3D software called Tinkercad. The girls test their bridges until they break, and then analyze and rebuild their bridges using their new knowledge. The hands-on bridge project provides the girls with opportunities to think like engineers and to develop a deep understanding of force and cooperative exploration. — Elsa Davids

Lego League Robotics

Harpeth Hall’s Lego League Robotics teams had winning performances at the State Robotics Competition. The girls demonstrated an ability to communicate their research, program effectively, and have fun! The Robotics team was awarded the Inspiration Core Values Award. This award is given to a team that is “empowered by their Lego League experience and demonstrates extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit.” Both teams embodied the spirit of Lego League in their actions and teamwork. Congratulations to our teams, our first-year Robotics Coach, Ms. Elsa Davids, and veteran Coach, Dr. Stephanie Zeiger. HH Robotics Team: Tara Howard, Ashley Maliakal, Brenna Paisley, Kate Linley, Kate Franklin, Lily Anne Thompson, Sari Shaffer, Fields Livingston and Elizabeth Lefler HH Coding Bears: Michelle Ikejiani, Sophia Baldwin, Natalie DiMaria, Grace Kingree, Jenna Peterson, Libby Coltea, Britton Staley, and Annabelle Thomas

In the Footsteps of Anne Dallas Dudley As we near the centennial anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment this summer, Harpeth Hall students are learning more about the role our state and our city played in the women’s suffrage movement. The 7th grade class researched the story of Anne Dallas Dudley, Ward Seminary graduate, and our Distinguished Alumna In Memoriam featured on page 42. The 7th grade project began with a review of secondary sources related to Anne Dallas Dudley. Students used this information to identify topics related to suffrage and to Anne Dudley’s life that they thought were significant to history. These topics were then divided and researched by individual students who used sources collected by a team of classroom and library teachers. Finally, the research was pooled together and used by teams of students to create items for the Middle School display case and an impressive online “Story Map” site that artfully pulls together their research with a sitemap and visuals. To celebrate the completion of their research project, the Class of 2025 visited the Tennessee State Museum and traveled to sites in Nashville that were central to Anne Dudley’s story, including the State Capitol building, Hermitage Hotel, and the suffrage statue at Centennial Park.

This museum and memorial served as a natural culmination of what we have discussed in the contemporary issues class. Being able to interact with the exhibits in the museum and to see personal stories of those

affected emphasized the impact on individuals during these stages of Civil Rights history in America. The experience has empowered me to look more into our justice system and continue to follow the work of the Equal Justice Initiative. ” — JANET BRIGGS ’21

Global Contemporary Issues: Trip to Montgomery The Upper School Global Contemporary Issues class is an elective taught by beloved teacher, Mr. Tony traveled to Montgomery, Alabama this past fall to visit some of the historic landmarks of the Civil Rights Movement. Through trips to Springman. The class is designed to provide students with the The Legacy Museum, that displays the history of slavery and racism historical context and intellectual framework to better understand in America, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the world in which they live. Students link past events to current commemorating the victims of lynching in the United States, policy decisions that affect them today as well as in the future. students spent a day immersed in some of the topics they studied To further explore these topics, Mr. Springman and fifteen students in class.

SUNDAY ON SOUBY

HALLOWEEN CARNIVAL

MOTHER DAUGHTER SPECIAL FRIEND COFFEE

Love and gratitude were the themes of the day at the annual Upper School Mother Daughter Special Friend Coffee and assembly. Student speakers shared touching and humorous stories about their mothers, as well as poetry penned in honor of their moms. The keynote speaker was Dr. Nancy Graves Beveridge, Class of 1980, parent of two Harpeth Hall graduates, Betsy ’03 and Glory ’08, and former Harpeth Hall Board Chair and current Honorary Trustee. Dr. Beveridge is a respected pediatrician who has supported countless families in the Nashville community while raising her four children — her two daughters, along with her sons, Stockton and Henry. Please visit our website for the news story and video of her speech. “We are genetically programmed to take care of one another and honestly that idea is no better illustrated than in the relationship that happens between parents and children, and specifically today, mothers and daughters.” — Dr. Nancy Graves Beveridge, Class of 1980

“Everlasting Love”

by Taylor Nesbit, Class of 2022

She smiles Brighter than the gym lights Her face a ray of pride A constant In my always changing life Forever by my side Forever there to catch me when I fall And cheering me on When I get back up Her scent of picnics in fields of flowers Envelops me in a comforting hug Home.

SPRING 2020

MLK Day of Service

Alarge group of Harpeth Hall community long-held tradition that dates back more than 100 years to Ward-Belmont, Harpeth Hall’s predecessor school. When the tradition was renewed at Harpeth Hall in 1954, freshman girls were the main participants. This year, the George Washington Day Celebration was performed in the Athletic and Wellness Center by the Class of 2025 prior to President’s Day. The seventh grade students presented the patriotic tableau depicting soldiers crossing the Delaware River among other scenes. Students were cast as soldiers, sailors, or guests at the birthday celebration. The eighth graders, Class of 2024, selected as George and Martha Washington were Josey Beavers and Mason Hart, respectively.

volunteers came together in January for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. Joining forces with the Nashville Diaper Connection, a local nonprofit that strives to ensure every baby in Davidson County has enough diapers to stay clean, dry, and healthy, Harpeth Hall students, MBA students, parents, siblings, faculty, staff, and alumnae assembled emergency diaper kits. The completed kits contained more than 38,000 diapers, which means the families of 760 babies in Nashville will receive a month’s supply of diapers.

George Washington Day CELEBRATION

The George Washington Day Celebration at Harpeth Hall is a Thank you to all who served!

Special thanks to Middle School Music Teacher, Matthew Pyles, as Director of the performance, and thanks to Director of the Middle School, Judi O’Brien, and the many other teachers, parents, facilities team members, and others who made the morning a success.

ASSEMBLY SPEAKER SERIES

Harpeth Hall hosted a variety of leaders and role models on campus this school year who shared their unique stories and gifts.

FRANCES CUTLER HAHN

In September, Holocaust survivor, Frances Cutler Hahn, shared with students the story of her harrowing childhood. She was born in Paris in 1938 as “Fanny” Lindenberg Kahane. Her parents made the agonizing decision to put her in a children’s home in Paris to keep her safe after the Nazis invaded Paris in 1940. Her story spans moving to live with a Catholic family on a farm in the French countryside; her mother’s deportation and murder in an Auschwitz concentration camp; her father’s injury in battle with the French Resistance; and her difficult transition to America at ten years of age to live with distant relatives she did not know, and who spoke a different language. Frances Hahn grew up in Pennsylvania, married, had a daughter, and eventually moved to Nashville to be closer to her daughter. She joined a Holocaust Child Survivors’ Group and together they published a book, Children Who Survived the Final Solution, edited by Peter Tarjan. Her story is included in the book. The opportunity to hear Frances Hahn’s first-hand account of her experience as a Holocaust survivor is a gift to our Harpeth Hall students that the next generation will not hear in person.

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Each year, the Harpeth Hall community celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by educating students in a variety of ways about Hispanic heritage, culture, and Nashville’s Hispanic community. The assembly guest speaker was Juliana Ospina Cano, Executive Director of Conexión Américas, the leading Latino-serving non-profit in Tennessee whose mission is “to build a welcoming community and create opportunities where Latino families can belong, contribute, and succeed.” Juliana immigrated to the United States from Colombia when she was fifteen. She shared her path through high school, college, and into her career which led

ELAINE WEISS

her to Washington, D.C. and eventually Nashville. “I didn’t know how completely my life would change,” she said of her experience moving to the United States.

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As we near the centennial anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, Harpeth Hall was honored to host award-winning author, Elaine Weiss, in October. Weiss’s recent book The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote has been hailed as a “riveting, nail-biting political thriller” with powerful parallels to today’s politics. The Woman’s Hour chronicles the dramatic weeks in the summer of 1920 as Tennessee lawmakers determined whether to ratify the

DEBBY IRVING

amendment. Students also heard about leading suffragists in Nashville and from Tennessee—“Some of the leading Tennessee suffragists were once sitting where you are sitting today. Your city played a very important role in winning the right to vote for all American women.” She also connected female suffragists and male allies with our predecessor schools—Ward Seminary and Ward-Belmont.

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In January, Harpeth Hall celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in an all-school assembly that included a special speaker. Debby Irving, author of Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, offered fresh perspective on bias, stereotypes, belief systems, optimism, and tolerance. As a racial justice educator and public speaker, as well as a community leader and classroom teacher for 25 years, Debby Irving “grappled with racial injustice without understanding racism as

DR. SHREE WALKER

a systemic issue or her own whiteness as an obstacle to it,” according to her book. Her presentation, “I’m A Good Person! Isn’t That Enough?” was shared not only with faculty and students, but also in a separate evening event for the community.

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To honor and celebrate Black History Month, Harpeth Hall invited Dr. Shree Walker, Director of Section 504 and Special Populations for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and an Adjunct Professor of Education at Belmont University, to share how she persevered through her challenging childhood in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. She eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee after being accepted to Fisk University. Dr. Walker is the author of Resilient Walker, a powerful memoir about her refusal to be a victim of circumstance and living through and overcoming trauma.